The present invention relates to an image recognition apparatus and method, and more particularly to optical character recognition of digitally scanned images to convert digitally scanned raster images to character codes.
Optical character recognition (OCR) algorithms are generally grouped into two categories. One category is the pattern matching and the other category is the feature detection and analysis method. The pattern matching technique is well known and widely used for printed character recognition. On the other hand, the feature analysis method is applied for rather complicated character recognition like Kanji or hand written characters.
The pattern matching technique is simple and fast, but too sensitive to the noise in the image. To apply this technique for multifont character recognition, a large volume of dictionary pattern must be prepared. The pattern matching method is believed to be fast for its simplicity, particularly if the pattern dictionary is not so large. However, in applications where many characters with various kinds of fonts and symbols are utilized, the pattern matching technique is not a fast recognition algorithm. On the other hand, the feature detection technique needs much time to detect the feature parameters of each character.